Satisfaction with police falling

The proportion of adults who believe their local police are doing a good job has dipped for the first time in a decade, official data have revealed.

Figures in the Crime Survey for England and Wales 2012/13 show 61% of people gave positive ratings for local officers, compared to 62% in the previous year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

The drop signals the end of a decade of year-on-year growth in the proportion of adults who report their area's police as doing a good or excellent job, the ONS said.

And when the ratings measures are broken down further, an increase was revealed in those who thought the police were doing a "very poor" job when compared to the previous year, from 1.8% to 2.2%.

Elsewhere, the ONS said the proportion of adults who reported seeing a police officer on foot patrol in their local area at least once a week dropped to 34% from 38% in the same period.

High visibility was associated with positive ratings of the police, the ONS added.

Some 69% of adults who reported seeing officers on foot patrol at least once a week gave the police an excellent or good rating.

This compared with just over half (53%) of adults who reported never seeing the police on patrol believing the police are doing an excellent or good job.